bow vs xbow vs gun

[Gilge]

hey, could someone please state the pros and cons of each of the above ranged weps?
im kinda new to rng.

could some one possibly describe the "sweet spots" for these as well?

many thanks

[Caspian]

Gun: High damage output, but not quite as good as it was pre-patch, but still fun for big numbers (very high delay)
Bow: The old standby and my personal favorite. Great damage (later on can do even more than gun, with enough + ranged attack) And all around sexiness
Xbow: added effect bolts, Acid bolts for destroying a mobs defense and dispelling a lot of mob's Def+ moves; Holy bolts for good damage for TP'ing and the added effect is great; Mythril and Darksteel bolts for WS's and barrage. Probably the cheapest of the three later on. As a woodworker, I can make all my holys and acids for free, just by selling off the excess. Very good damage, and acids help all the melees in your party.
Keep both marksmenship and archery capped. Whenever you level just cap the one you're on, then switch to the other and cap it. They both cap very quickly. Guns are nice and all, but I wouldn't mess with them until you can use regular bullets at the earliest, and maybe not even until silvers at 50 if you don't want to spend the money.
Sweet spots: Gun sweet spot is just outside melee range, I believe when you just start getting the "mob is too far away" messages is roughly where its at. You can always fiddle around with it a bit and make sure, you will see enough of a variation in damage to pinpoint it. Xbow is a few steps back from that, not totally sure on this one since I haven't xp'd much on rng until just recently, and haven't used a gun since I've been back. Bow is the farthest out. You're a long way from the mob on this one. Using the compass I believe you want the red dot of the mob to second line from outside the compass. I hope that makes sense, Macht may be able to describe it better.
Overall, I prefer bow for xp'ing. Especially when I get Ebow at 55 and the dmg difference becomes much larger b/w bow and xbow. If you're in a TP burn party, one rng using acids is nice because it shoots everyone else's damge through the roof.
Also, xbow is nice when soloing. Bloody bolts and Sleep bolts rock.
Hope I got everything, if I did maybe some of the other rngs can fill you in on what I missed.

EDIT: had gun and xbow sweet spots switched, saw one of Dan's posts and realized I had it backwards. Why do I always do that? I must be sweet spot dyslexic.

[hellspawn]

sdfsdfasdfasdf im new

[Caspian]

And that justifies a spam post how?
Please don't do it again.

[Avoklex]

Caspian hit the nail on that one. Keep everything capped per level, you will be thankful later in life. Once you hit 67, when OBow is available, you will most likely decide at that point which is better, Xbow or Bow (at least I did when I hit that level). I never went gun because of the insane delay on them, plus the cost outweighed everything gun had to offer. There is just so much better weapons in the bow/bow arena than gun, so that helped my decision as well. But, I digress, listento Casp, he is makes some good points.

[Gawaine]

Caspian is good with the rng info I would take his word on it. Myself I am a bow man, I like the damage and arrow costs are a bit less and better for lower levels starting off. I also like to macro Xbow with bloody, acid, and holy bolts for when HP is low and to lower mob defense.

[Tirrock]

I personally prefer crossbow because of acid bolts. I used to carry around a gun and a crossbow, but decided that the extra damage the other melee(s) are doing outweighs the increased damage I did with gun.

[Caspian]

It varies on what the party makeup is. Regardless, I prefer using bow, but if I'm in a melee heavy party I'm less disinclined to use xbow and will probably use it a lot longer than it takes to skill up marksmenship. With acids effect, zerk, and atk food, I think do around 30 less point with holy's + added effect than I do with zerk and atk food on a war bow +1. Those are both number differences I remember on my highest damage with all that active on Robber crabs in Kuftal last night. I'm sure the difference becomes less with a good MND build at endgame, or even a standard xp build at 67 with an O-bow. However, at that point I plan on having an Ebow which is supposed to make an even bigger difference in damage.
My last few parties have been myself, another dd melee, a tank, and 3 mage type jobs. Right now its probably a little more beneficial to use the acids since I would guess that bonus in damage the tank and DD get from their use is great than 30 points of damage. However, I'm figuring at 55, the significantly higher numbers from sidewinder, and the maintained higher numbers from barrage will make it less worth it to use acids full time or near full time in anything other than a TP burn party.
There's a thread on here somewhere, where Rugal parsed an old school arrow burn party with I think 3 rng's. Two had ebow and the third had Obow and acids and holy's. The parsing showed it was actually better if all three have an Ebow. (Surprised me honestly.)

Anyway, its why I always have so much love for THF's who keep acids stuck throughout the battle. You guys rock

[Tirrock]

I'd also accept this answer on why to use a bow:
"Best animation".

I've also heard a few good things about the elemental arrows, but I've never bothered to craft them, let alone use them.

[Caspian]

I'd also accept this answer on why to use a bow:
"Best animation".

I've also heard a few good things about the elemental arrows, but I've never bothered to craft them, let alone use them.

Lol, true, nothing looks better than a bow.

The new ele arrows are supposed to be really good. Apple Pie was getting over 100 additional effect when he boosted INT on TW's. Should still do some great damage on xp mobs. Especially if you can fight mobs with corresponding elemental weaknesses.

[Gawaine]

I use bows in a party and xbox for solo mostly. I will switch to keep both leveled but as long as you have everything macroed then your good. I just use xbox when needed for the extra bolt effects only thing that you have to pay attention to is your TP cause it resents when changing xbow to bow or vice versa, so just wait until after you do a WS. I have a question though anyone know what level sidwinder is?

[Gilge]

sidewinder is lvl 55 i believe

[Linra]

I wanted to ask a few questions...

-Does the "Sweet Spot" effect hit rate, or is it just for damage?
-So Sweet Spots for XBow is slightly further then Melee Range and Bow is at the edge of the compass?
-Even if I'm not at the Sweet Spot does standing further back help me hit more, or does standing too far and too close result in the same miss rate?

Thank you! ^^

[VZX]

I wanted to ask a few questions...

-Does the "Sweet Spot" effect hit rate, or is it just for damage?

both

-So Sweet Spots for XBow is slightly further then Melee Range and Bow is at the edge of the compass?

xbow is few steps from melee range, slightly further than that of gun.
bow's is farther than xbow, but not in the edge of compass. But well... depend on the mob size you're fighting again.

-Even if I'm not at the Sweet Spot does standing further back help me hit more, or does standing too far and too close result in the same miss rate?

Thank you! ^^

I have read somewhere in japanese BBS (2ch2?) that they found the hit rate from sweetspot to melee range is unchanged. and hit rate getting worse as you shoot from farther range

so more or less it looks like
[code]
melee -----------sweet spot--------------- farthest range
hit rate
high -------------\
\
\
low \-------------------
[/code]
well, the illustration is not that good... but that's pretty much about it